Electricity to Garden Shed

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Thirsty

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Can any one tell me if its possible to install a permanent power line to the garden shed from the house?

And what might that entail? Do I have to have a trench dug or can it go along the wall?

Is the likely cost mainly a function of distance?
 
Kinda yes to all yoù ask. Underground or over has a lot to do with where your shed is positioned and what's in the way.
 
Got an armoured cable run to the little shed many years ago in order to have a couple of sockets in it.

Never any issues, mind you, hardly ever use the sockets.


Still, if I ever sell :)
 
Thanks folks.

To answer questions - shed is at the end of the garden, nothing 'in the way' except grass.

Is there a way to estimate 'cost per metre'?

Possibly silly question, how does the cable connect to the house supply?
 
Thirsty said:
Thanks folks.

To answer questions - shed is at the end of the garden, nothing 'in the way' except grass.

Is there a way to estimate 'cost per metre'?

Possibly silly question, how does the cable connect to the house supply?
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Cable will take electrical supply from your fuse board. Your electrician will probably need to install a circuit breaker for this purpose.

How many electrical points (lights, switches, sockets, etc.) do you want installed in your shed?

Do you want multiple appliances (washing machine, dryer, lawn mower, power tools etc) running at the same time? If so, you may need a small fuse board in the shed.

If you don't want more than a light and a socket for occasional use, you might have an adequately sized spare breaker in your existing fuse board. Your electrician will confirm what's spare.

Depending on your garden, electrician will likely clip NYMJ (grey colour, non-armoured) or SWA (black, armoured) along your wall. SWA has stronger mechanical protection which will help prevent a stray shovel going through it. But it will be physically larger, more expensive, and arguably uglier than NYMJ.

I think burying the cable will be cost prohibitive.
 
Interested in this myself as I use an extension lead to an outside socket and DIY the wiring in the shed myself perfectly leget when your using an extension leed. but i would like to do permanent job, could you keep us posted of costs of materials and labour I recon you wouldn't have much change out of a 1000 euros done right.
 
You can buy good battery operated lights which you can switch on and off as you please. No need to rewire or attack the fuse board. However, if you need electric sockets you will need to run a cable. But, with cordless tools you most likely don't need sockets. Save yourself a few bob and buy the battery operated lights.
 
I did some external wiring around my garden. FWIW costs were about €20 for an external socket, then 2.5sqmm armoured (SWA) cable is about €1.50 per meter and a 20A fuse for your fuseboard will be somewhere around €25.

I'd imagine your could get an electrician to make the connections for something like €100-150 if you had all the cable in yourself. You would need to find a route for the cable from your garden shed right back to the fuseboard, which is generally near your front door. If you get the electrician to do this cable routing it will obviously add a fair bit to the cost as it will be time-consuming.
 
Thanks folks, very helpful.

So if fuse board is by the front door, how will cable come into house from the back to connect to fuse board?

Are we looking at drilling holes in the house wall? Cutting out channel in plaster board? Or have I got the wrong picture in my head?
 
PaddyBloggit said:
+ 1 for SWA cable. As it's armoured, you can just raise the sod and lay it down.
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ABSOLUTELY NOT !!

Apologies for caps, but this is very dangerous and is not allowed.

All electrical cables must be buried at a sufficient depth (normally taken as not less than 600 mm).
All buried cables should be marked by cable covers or marker tape.
Non-armoured buried cables should be installed in a conduit or suitable duct to provide protection against impact. Armoured cables and cables having an earthed metal sheath suitable for use as a protective conductor may be buried directly in the ground without further protection, but certainly NEVER just below the sod.

@Thirsty
If you have a garden wall with a capping stone leading to the shed then I would opt for a surface feed, clipped directly under that cap, using NYMJ cable.
I would advise fitting a small sub DB in the shed and using no less than 4sqmm cable to allow for some expansion.
If sunlight is going to be a problem, never really is in practice in Ireland, but nonetheless black thermoplastic (PVC) cable sheaths containing carbon black which resists the effects of sunlight can be utilised.
 
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Then again, I think (not sure though) .... that I put the SWA cable into water pipe before I laid it down.
 
I think the overriding message on this thread is:- If you know nothing about the dangers of electricity and fuse-boards and wires and ducting, leave the job to a qualified electrician.​
 
Actually it's very useful to have this info before bringing in a contractor.

Still trying to get my head around how the cable connects into the house.

Can anyone help with that?
 
To run an independent circuit, if you've a standard 2 story house, they'll take a new cable from your fuse board, and run it up into the ceiling. They'll lift floor boards in the room above, and take the cable across to partition wall between bedrooms, and route the cable up into the attic (you'll already have lots of cables following this route), then across attic to the back of house, outside, and down the back wall.
Run cable to shed, and terminate at an RCD, and wire your shed from there.

As suggested above, 4mm square cable will give you flexibility to do anything you want in future. The sockets in your house are on 2.5mm cable.

If you don't have a need for anything heavy duty in shed, what some people would do us run a spur from the kitchen socket circuit our to the shed. Much easier cause you just drill a hole in the wall, but you're limited to about the equivalent of an extension lead - so no welding!. I'm not an electrician obviously, so I don't know if this approach meets current standards.
 
Good points from @SparkRite above.

Rules in this area have changed over recent years. If you plan to run cables yourself, best run your plan by the electrician who will do the connection to the consumer unit and issue the required cert on completion. If you run the cable and have it hidden where they cannot asses, they may be unable to sign-off.

Depending on the length of the cable, they may suggest going bigger than 4mm.
 
The first rule of electricity is to run the cable from the new socket back to the fuse board. Not the other way round. You will use an extra metre or two of cable doing this. Don't even think of running the cable from the fuse board to the new socket.
 
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